Contents

When the move is used, Robin casts a spiral of dark magic in front of themself, acting as a special grab. Opponents grabbed take 0.8% darkness damage multiple times over several seconds (155 frames) for a total of about 15% damage. Other opponents are knocked back if they touch the victim; this causes darkness effects but no damage. In the air, ensnaring an opponent with Nosferatu will cause both Robin and the opponent to slowly fall down. If the opponent lands before Robin does, Robin will continue floating in the air until the move has finished. Robin will be helpless if the move ends with him in the air. Using this move changes Robin's active tome to Nosferatu.

The opponent held by Nosferatu may escape faster by button mashing, depending on their percent. If their damage when initially grabbed is 0%, each input made will reduce the duration by an extra 5 frames. The higher their percent is when grabbed, the less effective each input will be. The effect is linear until 120%, where at that point mashing has no effect on the duration. When the opponent is released, they recoil with set knockback.

In addition to its damaging properties, the move heals Robin. Every time it does damage, Robin heals for (damage * 0.8) + (diff * 0.02), with "diff" being Robin's current damage minus the victim's damage (which cannot be negative, and updates over time). In SSB4, the healing is multiplied by 1.25x if the opponent is caught from behind. As a result, Robin will heal at least 13% damage if the opponent started with higher damage, and can heal over 40% if Robin has 100% or more damage than the opponent.

Nosferatu can only be used a total of 4 times (3 in Ultimate) before the tome's durability is depleted. The tome respawns after 40 seconds (30 in Ultimate) have passed. This is the longest cooldown of all Robin's weaponry along with the least uses of any tome in Robin's arsenal. Because of this move's extremely limited uses, it can be used repeatedly in order to easily obtain a throwable used tome in the quickest time possible. Used tomes deal good damage and have KO potential when thrown.

"Pulls opponents in before trapping them. No healing effect, but deals more damage."

Nosferatu: Default.

Distant Nosferatu: Nosferatu is used twice as far from Robin, making it easier to catch opponents without being directly in front of Robin. If the opponent is directly in front of Robin, the move will miss them entirely, as the dark energy is farther down, leaving Robin open to attack. This move deals 12% to the opponent, regardless if attacked from in front or from behind. The move's healing formula per hit is damage * 0.45, with no change based on damage difference; when used in front of an opponent, it will heal Robin by 6%, when used from behind, it heals Robin by 8%. This move also has a slightly longer start-up.

Goetia: Uses the tome Goetia, which is stronger than Nosferatu, but has no healing capabilities. It takes longer to start the move. At startup, Robin creates a dark vortex that pulls in foes before beginning to attack them. This attack has a relatively bigger range than Nosferatu, and summons a bigger dark energy spiral that engulfs the opponent and deals 19% damage.

Knoll performing Nosferatu on an enemy soldier as it appeared in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, one of the games it is usable in.

Robin performing Goetia in Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Nosferatu is a special Dark tome from the Fire Emblem series (except for in the first five games and the Tellius series, in which Nosferatu is instead a generic tome or a Light tome). When a unit casts Nosferatu, however much damage he or she inflicts will return to the caster in the form of healing. This effect carries over into Smash 4. Additionally, Nosferatu tomes have lower accuracy, making it harder to hit enemy troops with it. This is reflected in Smash 4 by the difficulty in landing the move.

Goetia is another Dark tome that is introduced in Fire Emblem: Awakening. It is much stronger than Nosferatu, but does not have the healing property Nosferatu does. It is also easier to land in Awakening.

As a Tactician, Robin ordinarily cannot use dark magic in Fire Emblem: Awakening, though he or she can potentially wield such magic if he or she reclasses to one that can, such as a Dark Mage; however, if Male Robin marries Aversa, his daughter Morgan gains the skill Shadowgift, which allows her to use dark magic tomes in any Tome-wielding class. Masahiro Sakurai gave Robin the ability to use Nosferatu as a Tactician in order to "capture certain aspects of the original title".[1]

The word "Nosferatu" itself is a nonsense word meant to sound Romanian, and has come to be synonymous with "vampire" in fiction since the word's introduction in the synonymous 1922 vampire horror movie Nosferatu.